Tallahasse, Florida Insurance Update — Most of the uninsured of Florida would be guaranteed a chance to buy health insurance with Crists new healthcare plan and companies could offer plans that might be cheaper because they wouldn't cover all ailment.
The plan proposed Tuesday by Gov. Charlie Crist. wouldn't require that employers offer health insurance, or that people have the coverage, unlike a universal health care plan that Massachusetts created or a plan being pushed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Instead, it would say that insurance companies could create certain types of plans without typical coverage. For example, it might not offer coverage for maternity care _ which wouldn't be needed by a family that doesn't plan to have children. That could make the policy cheaper.
The plans would have to guarantee coverage to anyone aged 19 to 64 who can pay for it.
Get more information on Florida Health Insurance here. Todays update is on Health Savings Accounts, and how they can help reduce your healthcare costs.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Georgia Health Insurance Quotes Now Easier
A new Georiga Health Insurance Website is now ready for consumers to shop their health insurance from the top A rated carriers in the state. Sister company to Florida Health Insurance Web, Georgia Health Insurance Web offers real time health quotes for individuals and familes. Compare all of the major carriers side by side. If you are a Georiga resident and are in need of lowering your health insurance cost, check out the best Georgia Insurance rates, at www.GeorgiaHealthInsuranceWeb.com
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Boca Raton Florida Update on Barack Obama
Barack Obama is on his way to the Democratic nomination. Obama wins Colorado, Idaho, Utah, along with the majority of states thus far in race. Check out Florida Health Insurance Web for the complete review of Super Tuesday and the results incured this evening. Go to www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com
Monday, February 4, 2008
Auburndale Florida Health Insurance Update
An Orlando Florida based coalition grouped together many of the major employers in Florida during the early 1980's. The Florida Health Care Coalition has now expaned into many of the largest counties in Florida. This is an attempt to lower health insurance costs in Florida.
The coalition expanded to Polk County in 2000 and now represents large firms throughout Central and South Florida employing more than 2 million workers, according to Steve Henderson, director of risk management for the Polk County School Board and a member of the FHCC board of directors.
Other Polk organizations represented on the FHCC board are the Board of County Commissioners, Publix and the City of Lakeland. Watkins Motor Lines was an FHCC member until the firm was acquired by FedEx in 2006.
A Brief History
The FHCC was formed after Becky Cherney, now FHCC founder and CEO but then director of human resources for Tupperware, learned in 1983 that her company's health insurance costs would go up by 30 percent the following year.
"For what?" Cherney asked. "I knew what I was paying, but I sure didn't know what I was getting. I didn't know if we were getting the best doctors or the most effective pharmaceuticals or if the lives of our employees were improved.
"The first thing I learned is that everybody was to blame and nobody was in charge. You could get all the health care stakeholders in one room, point your finger anywhere and you'd be pointing at blame."
Health insurance companies did not perceive themselves as part of the health care system, Cherney said.
"They thought they were merely administrators," she said, indicating that the insurers saw their role simply to collect money from consumers, take their fee for service and pass on the balance to the providers. If the providers raised their prices, the insurance companies merely raised their rates.
After doing more research, Cherney said she "...realized that the issue was not cost, but quality." If she closely monitored quality, determining and then requiring the best management practice for any health issue, imposed the most efficient system for delivering care and, most importantly, plugged informed, conscientious consumers into the system, costs would go way down.
Keeping Costs Down
Although active membership in the coalition is limited to companies and institutions that employ 1,000 or more, even the smallest company can benefit from the coalition's efforts.
One FHCC service available to anyone is "eValu8," the coalition's tool for evaluating health insurance plans and wellness programs. The 30-page report can be downloaded from the group's Web site - www.flhcc.com - in PDF format.
The single most important thing any employer can do to control direct and indirect health-related costs, according to Cherney, is to encourage and empower employees to live healthy lifestyles and to assume responsibility for their own health.
Unhealthy lifestyles and employees' failure to monitor their own health and actively seek "wellness" account for most "unnecessary" health care costs.
An Ounce of Prevention
In mid-January, 12,000 employees plus retirees of the Polk County School Board were mailed invitations to take part in a half-day health fair in South Lakeland on March 8. Services include free screenings for cholesterol, glucose, vision, hearing, blood pressure and other health indicators.
Those services will cost the School Board. In the long run, however, they will save the Board - and therefore the taxpayers - significantly more money because diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other diseases are much easier and cheaper to treat and control when caught early.
Small and medium-sized companies may not be able to provide health and wellness fairs for their employees, but they might provide information about associations related to specific diseases and conditions, many of which offer free or low-cost screenings.
Proactive consumption, intervention and prevention represent "the million-dollar solution to the trillion-dollar (health care) problem," said the School Board's Henderson.
While Florida law prohibits companies from pooling their work forces to obtain better insurance rates, nothing prevents them from combining forces to share costs of health fairs and wellness programs.
And that's how the highest-quality health-care system becomes the least expensive.
"Well, we're working on it," Henderson said
The coalition expanded to Polk County in 2000 and now represents large firms throughout Central and South Florida employing more than 2 million workers, according to Steve Henderson, director of risk management for the Polk County School Board and a member of the FHCC board of directors.
Other Polk organizations represented on the FHCC board are the Board of County Commissioners, Publix and the City of Lakeland. Watkins Motor Lines was an FHCC member until the firm was acquired by FedEx in 2006.
A Brief History
The FHCC was formed after Becky Cherney, now FHCC founder and CEO but then director of human resources for Tupperware, learned in 1983 that her company's health insurance costs would go up by 30 percent the following year.
"For what?" Cherney asked. "I knew what I was paying, but I sure didn't know what I was getting. I didn't know if we were getting the best doctors or the most effective pharmaceuticals or if the lives of our employees were improved.
"The first thing I learned is that everybody was to blame and nobody was in charge. You could get all the health care stakeholders in one room, point your finger anywhere and you'd be pointing at blame."
Health insurance companies did not perceive themselves as part of the health care system, Cherney said.
"They thought they were merely administrators," she said, indicating that the insurers saw their role simply to collect money from consumers, take their fee for service and pass on the balance to the providers. If the providers raised their prices, the insurance companies merely raised their rates.
After doing more research, Cherney said she "...realized that the issue was not cost, but quality." If she closely monitored quality, determining and then requiring the best management practice for any health issue, imposed the most efficient system for delivering care and, most importantly, plugged informed, conscientious consumers into the system, costs would go way down.
Keeping Costs Down
Although active membership in the coalition is limited to companies and institutions that employ 1,000 or more, even the smallest company can benefit from the coalition's efforts.
One FHCC service available to anyone is "eValu8," the coalition's tool for evaluating health insurance plans and wellness programs. The 30-page report can be downloaded from the group's Web site - www.flhcc.com - in PDF format.
The single most important thing any employer can do to control direct and indirect health-related costs, according to Cherney, is to encourage and empower employees to live healthy lifestyles and to assume responsibility for their own health.
Unhealthy lifestyles and employees' failure to monitor their own health and actively seek "wellness" account for most "unnecessary" health care costs.
An Ounce of Prevention
In mid-January, 12,000 employees plus retirees of the Polk County School Board were mailed invitations to take part in a half-day health fair in South Lakeland on March 8. Services include free screenings for cholesterol, glucose, vision, hearing, blood pressure and other health indicators.
Those services will cost the School Board. In the long run, however, they will save the Board - and therefore the taxpayers - significantly more money because diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other diseases are much easier and cheaper to treat and control when caught early.
Small and medium-sized companies may not be able to provide health and wellness fairs for their employees, but they might provide information about associations related to specific diseases and conditions, many of which offer free or low-cost screenings.
Proactive consumption, intervention and prevention represent "the million-dollar solution to the trillion-dollar (health care) problem," said the School Board's Henderson.
While Florida law prohibits companies from pooling their work forces to obtain better insurance rates, nothing prevents them from combining forces to share costs of health fairs and wellness programs.
And that's how the highest-quality health-care system becomes the least expensive.
"Well, we're working on it," Henderson said
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Morgan Moran on Clinton (Obama) Debate
Jacksonville, Florida health insurance update
Who offers the best health care plan? Clinton or Obama? Please let us know what you think.
Who offers the best health care plan? Clinton or Obama? Please let us know what you think.
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